Resolutions, resolutions, resolutions! You are in 2016: another year added to the calendar and your life. Positive minded people strive to make every coming day better than before for a brighter life and for the world.

Like every other year that passed in your life, 2015 wasn’t error-free. There were things that needed to be done, behaviors that needed to be corrected, objectives left unachieved and there were challenges left unmet.

You have many hard things to leave (though you know that you need to leave them). Here is a list of 6 things that are hard, but you must leave behind in 2015 in order to have a confident year for 2016!

Negative Family Members.

Your family is your emotional anchor. In virtually all matters, the family (whether birth or blended) is the pivot point for all your bonding and emotional needs. Unfortunately, you may have family members who do not get along well with other family for any number of reasons. The negativities in their individual personalities place a huge level of stress on the whole family fabric and structure. If their personal disposition on life was still poisonous and contentious to the family sphere at the end of 2015, then leave behind their feelings of dejection and move forward in 2016.

Without them.

And be OK with it.

Shopping Without a Budget.

You had been into “shop till you drop” mode of thinking in 2015, always without a budget, rolling over your credit card and finding yourself in financial freefall. You loved to shop and get the best in everything (especially when you find a great sale that you can’t pass up). Understandably, it’s hard to resist but it is a sure recipe for disaster to your dollars. Make a firm resolve this year to budget your shopping and spend sensibly. You will find your life much more organized and your credit rating soaring.

Low Self-Image.

You had been crazy about all those celebrities and supermodels whom you love sneaking peeks at in all those fashion magazines. You would follow them just about everywhere on and offline, trying to be their clone in every single way (hair style, clothes, shoes and even what they eat). This didn’t help you a single bit in life in real terms. You couldn’t become them and neither did you look like them in the end. It did hurt you in a way or two though; you were never really yourself all along. You may have even looked awkward at certain places wearing “celebrity” clothing. Leave this foolish chase of ‘cloning shadows’ back in 2015 and embrace BEING YOURSELF in 2016.

Lack of Disciplined Study Habits.

You did not ‘find the time’ (or perhaps never felt like) reading and studying in 2015. This left a huge vacuum in your personal development in every single way. The lack of study habits restricted your development in business related matters, and isolated you from new trends and leads in business, entrepreneurship and life in general. Enforce your resolve for 2016 to develop study habits. It’s easy! You can take a book while you travel (books on tape if you commute, paperback or e-books during air travel). The reading can be anything of your interest to start with (e.g. interesting quirky quotes or humor). Gradually build yourself up to something more professional, absorbing weighty and meaningful reading related to your work or business. You will be satisfyingly surprised to find how disciplined study habits expand your reachable horizons indefinitely.

Absence of Progressive Self-Development.

It is critically vital to remember that personal development is a very personal affair; this is different from professional development or even educational progression. It is a wholesome concept involving everything else. It includes: emotional stability, health, wellness, conceptual clarity, spiritual enlightenment, parenting, socializing and everything about life and your personality. The key point to hold dearly is that your personality will evolve throughout your life as you experience a diversity of unique (sometimes exotic) challenges relating to your age. Perhaps unknowingly or willfully, you neglected this vital dimension of your life in 2015. Gear up to do better in 2016! There are a dozens of avenues to lead you in a n improved life direction. Invest in a quality mentor, a support group or an online forum of higher learning. Go a step up from there and book that flight to an actual live conference for someone that you have been watching online for years from afar!

Being a Visionary with no Written Vision to Work From.

All right my friends: you did some decent work in 2015 by having a mental map of your yearly objectives for the year and you did reasonably well by achieving some measure of your goals. However, did you realize midway through the year that something could have been attempted or planned with definitive purpose at the start of 2015? A mental-only approach took you just a portion of the way by year-end. This usually happens for one general reason: not taking a quality session of time for contemplation, brainstorming and soul-searching in January 2015 to list and plan your resolves for the year in writing. Though there is nothing wrong with midyear resolutions, what could you have initiated 6 months earlier with planning? This year, take the time to sit down (somewhere peaceful and non-distracting) and put everything in writing with the timelines to follow. This will deliver to you a well-planned and exciting 2016!

I agree with all of these. Number one is super important and also super challenging but worth it. It is obvious we need to let negative family people go. But it is harder when they are family, but no less important.

The family has been left since 2008 lol I have never looked back. Although I do miss having a family I have great friends who have adopted me. I can’t take the foolishness family or non family Great post!

This post was awesome!! love your blog.. I am signing up to receive your newsletter.. shopping without a budget is my biggest issue. I spend hundreds of dollars in Tj maxx and marshalls every week. I am putting myself in time out the 1st quarter of the year. No spending money for 90 days

Welcome to Couture’d Confidence, Tomiko! Thank you for sharing and yes! After putting yourself in time out during the first quarter, you can prepare to reach even bigger goals during quarters 2, 3 and 4!

Yes to ALLL of this. I severed my relationship with my sister because it was toxic to me. We are now bridging that. I love her to death but needed a break and to reevaluate our dynamic. I could talk about this post for days! Great and positive information. 2016 should be full of positivity and self-love. We really need to do the things that serve us and move us forward in life! My motto is life is all about positive forward movement!